Teammates of a former Belmont woman have fond memories of her fierce competitiveness on the basketball court and compassionate team spirit.

Sara Hoover, a standout athlete at South Point High School in the early 1970s, died Sunday after a short battle with brain cancer. She was 57.

The Charlotte woman grew up in Belmont. Four years ago, the Belmont Sports Hall of Fame inducted Hoover and fellow teammates of the 1972 and 1973 South Point High School women’s basketball teams.

They won the North Carolina 3A championship two years in a row.

“Sara was a really sweet person but when she got on that court, she meant business,” said Beth Beaty of Cramerton, who played basketball with Hoover. “She was a hard player. She was a good player. It was something special about that team. We were out there to win.”

The teammates reunite a couple of times each year.

Beaty said they plan to sit together at Hoover’s funeral on Friday in final tribute to the woman of few words who teammates highly respected.

“She had her limit. When it was time for something to be done, she would speak out to get it done,” said Pam Smith, who played basketball at South Point alongside Hoover.

When Beaty broke her ankle playing softball in junior high, it was Sara Hoover who comforted her.

“Sara rode in the back of the station wagon with me to the hospital,” she said. “I had to have a cast on my leg. She spent many hours at my house after that making sure I wasn’t by myself.”

Changing lives at the end of hers

Hoover’s twin sister, Elaine Hoover of Greensboro, also played on the championship teams.

Elaine Hoover said her sister was a superb athlete who also excelled in high school softball.

Sara Hoover later taught swimming lessons for a decade at the former Suttle’s Swim Club on Wilkinson Boulevard in Charlotte.

Hospitalized and treated for a brain tumor over the past month, Elaine said her sister inspired a therapist at Carolinas’ Medical Center in Charlotte to overcome a fear of swimming.

“She said, ‘If she can overcome the fear of this tumor, I can overcome a fear of water,’” Elaine Hoover said. “She told us she signed up for swimming lessons because of Sara.”